Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Paleo-Orthodoxy: Hippolytus of Rome on Aristotle, Stoics and Pagans

Aristotle, who was a pupil of this Plato, reduced
philosophy into an art, and was distinguished rather for his proficiency in
logical science, supposing as the elements of all things substance and
accident; that there is one substance underlying all things, but nine
accidents,--namely, quantity, quality, relation, where, when, possession,
posture, action, passion; and that substance is of some such description as
God, man, and each of the beings that can fall under a similar denomination.
But in regard of accidents, quality is seen in, for instance, white, black; and
quantity, for instance two cubits, three cubits; and relation, for instance
father, son; and where, for instance at Athens, Megara; and when, for instance
during the tenth Olympiad; and possession, for instance to have acquired; and
action, for instance to write, and in general to evince any practical powers;
and posture, for instance to lie down; and passion, for instance to be struck.
He also supposes that some things have means, but that others are without
means, as we have declared concerning Plato likewise. And in most points he is
in agreement with Plato, except the opinion concerning soul. For Plato affirms
it to be immortal, but Aristotle that it involves permanence; and after these
things, that this also vanishes in the fifth body, which he supposes, along
with the other four elements,--viz., fire, and earth, and water, and air,--to
be a something more subtle than these, of the nature of spirit. Plato therefore
says, that the only really good things are those pertaining to the soul, and
that they are sufficient for happiness; whereas Aristotle introduces a
threefold classification of good things, and asserts that the wise man is not
perfect, unless there are present to him both the good things of the body and
those extrinsic to it. The former are beauty, strength, vigor of the senses,
soundness; while the things extrinsic to the body are wealth, nobility, glory,
power, peace, friendship. And the inner qualities of the soul he classifies, as
it was the opinion of Plato, under prudence, temperance, justice, fortitude.
This philosopher also affirms that evils arise according to an opposition of
the things that are good, and that they exist beneath the quarter around the
moon, but reach no farther beyond the moon; and that the soul of the entire
world is immortal, and that the world itself is eternal, but that the soul in
an individual, as we have before stated, vanishes in the fifth body. This
speculator, then holding discussions in the Lyceum, drew up from time to time
his system of philosophy; but Zeno held his school in the porch called Poecile.
And the followers of Zeno obtained their name from the place--that is, from
Stoa-- (i.e., a porch), being styled Stoics; whereas Aristotle's followers
(were denominated) from their mode of employing themselves while teaching. For
since they were accustomed walking about in the Lyceum to pursue their
investigations, on this account they were called Peripatetics. These indeed,
then, were the doctrines of Aristotle.

The Stoics themselves also imparted growth to philosophy,
in respect of a greater development of the art of syllogism, and included
almost everything under definitions, both Chrysippus and Zeno being coincident
in opinion on this point. And they likewise supposed God to be the one
originating principle of all things, being a body of the utmost refinement, and
that His providential care pervaded everything; and these speculators were
positive about the existence of fate everywhere, employing some such example as
the following: that just as a dog, supposing him attached to a car, if indeed
he is disposed to follow, both is drawn, or follows voluntarily, making an
exercise also of free power, in combination with necessity, that is, fate; but
if he may not be disposed to follow, he will altogether be coerced to do so.
And the same, of course, holds good in the case of men. For though not willing
to follow, they will altogether be compelled to enter upon what has been
decreed for them. The Stoics, however, assert that the soul abides after death,
but that it is a body, and that such is formed from the refrigeration of the
surrounding atmosphere; wherefore, also, that it was called psyche (i.e.,
soul). And they acknowledge likewise, that there is a transition of souls from
one body to another, that is, for those souls for whom this migration has been
destined. And they accept the doctrine, that there will be a conflagration, a
purification of this world, some say the entire of it, but others a portion,
and that the world itself is undergoing partial destruction; and this all but
corruption, and the generation from it of another world, they term purgation.
And they assume the existence of all bodies, and that body does not pass
through body, but that a refraction takes place, and that all things involve
plenitude, and that there is no vacuum. The foregoing are the opinions of the
Stoics also.

Epicurus, however, advanced an opinion almost contrary to
all. He supposed, as originating principles of all things, atoms and vacuity.
He considered vacuity as the place that would contain the things that will
exist, and atoms the matter out of which all things could be formed; and that
from the concourse of atoms both the Deity derived existence, and all the
elements, and all things inherent in them, as well as animals and other
creatures; so that nothing was generated or existed, unless it be from atoms.
And he affirmed that these atoms were composed of extremely small particles, in
which there could not exist either a point or a sign, or any division;
wherefore also he called them atoms. Acknowledging the Deity to be eternal and
incorruptible, he says that God has providential care for nothing, and that
there is no such thing at all as providence or fate, but that all things arc
made by chance. For that the Deity reposed in the intermundane spaces, as they
are thus styled by him; for outside the world he determined that there is a
certain habitation of God, denominated "the intermundane spaces," and
that the Deity surrendered Himself to pleasure, and took His ease in the midst
of supreme happiness; and that neither has He any concerns of business, nor
does He devote His attention to them. As a consequence on these opinions, he
also propounded his theory concerning wise men, asserting that the end of
wisdom is pleasure. Different persons, however, received the term "pleasure"
in different acceptations; for some among the Gentiles understood the passions,
but others the satisfaction resulting from virtue. And he concluded that the
souls of men are dissolved along with their bodies, just as also they were
produced along with them, for that they are blood, and that when this has gone
forth or been altered, the entire man perishes; and in keeping with this tenet,
Epicurus maintained that there are neither trials in Hades, nor tribunals of
justice; so that whatsoever any one may commit in this life, that, provided he
may escape detection, he is altogether beyond any liability of trial for it in
a future state. In this way, then, Epicurus also formed his opinions.

And another opinion of the philosophers was called that of
the Academics, on account of those holding their discussions in the Academy, of
whom the founder Pyrrho, from whom they were called Pyrrhonean philosophers,
first introduced the notion of the incomprehensibility of all things, so as to
be ready to attempt an argument on either side of a question, but not to assert
anything for certain; for that there is nothing of things intelligible or
sensible true, but that they appear to men to be so; and that all substance is
in a state of flux and change, and never continues in the same condition. Some
followers, then, of the Academics say that one ought not to declare an opinion
on the principle of anything, but simply making the attempt to give it up;
whereas others subjoined the formulary "not rather" this than that,
saying that the fire is not rather fire than anything else. But they did not
declare what this is, but what sort it is.

But there is also with the Indians a sect composed of those
philosophizing among the Brahmans. They spend a contented existence, abstain
both from living creatures and all cooked food, being satisfied with fruits;
and not gathering these from the trees, but carrying off those that have fallen
to the earth. They subsist upon them, drinking the water of the river Ganges.
But they pass their life naked, affirming that the body has been constituted a
covering to the soul by the Deity. These affirm that God is light, not such as
one sees, nor such as the sun and fire; but to them the Deity is discourse, not
that which finds expression in articulate sounds, but that of the knowledge
through which the secret mysteries of nature are perceived by the wise. And
this light which they say is discourse, their god, they assert that the
Brahmans only know on account of their alone rejecting all vanity of opinion
which is the souls ultimate covering. These despise death, and always in their
own peculiar language call God by the name which we have mentioned previously,
and they send up hymns to him. But neither are there women among them, nor do
they beget children. But they who aim at a life similar to these, after they
have crossed over to the country on the opposite side of the river, continue to
reside there, returning no more; and these also are called Brahmans. But they
do not pass their life similarly, for there are also in the place women, of
whom those that dwell there are born, and in turn beget children. And this
discourse which they name God they assert to be corporeal, and enveloped in a
body outside himself, just as if one were wearing a sheep's skin, but that on
divesting himself of body that he would appear clear to the eye. But the
Brahmans say that there is a conflict in the body that surrounds them, and they
consider that the body is for them full of conflicts; in opposition to which,
as if marshaled for battle against enemies, they contend, as we have already
explained. And they say that all men are captive to their own congenital
struggles, viz., sensuality and in chastity, gluttony, anger, joy, sorrow,
concupiscence, and such like. And he who has reared a trophy over these, alone
goes to God; wherefore the Brahmans deify Dandamis, to whom Alexander the
Macedonian paid a visit, as one who had proved victorious in the bodily
conflict. But they bear down on Calanus as having profanely withdrawn from
their philosophy. But the Brahmans, putting off the body, like fishes jumping
out of water into the pure air, behold the sun.

And the Celtic Druids investigated to the very highest
point the Pythagorean philosophy, after Zamolxis, by birth a Thracian, a
servant of Pythagoras, became to them the originator of this discipline. Now
after the death of Pythagoras, Zamolxis, repairing thither, became to them the
originator of this philosophy. The Celts esteem these as prophets and seers, on
account of their foretelling to them certain events, from calculations and
numbers by the Pythagorean art; on the methods of which very art also we shall
not keep silence, since also from these some have presumed to introduce
heresies; but the Druids resort to magical rites likewise.

But Hesiod the poet asserts himself also that he thus heard
from the Muses concerning nature, and that the Muses are the daughters of
Jupiter. For when for nine nights and days together, Jupiter, through excess of
passion, had uninterruptedly lain with Mnemosyne, that Mnemosyne conceived in
one womb those nine Muses, becoming pregnant with one during each night. Having
then summoned the nine Muses from Pieria, that is, Olympus, he exhorted them to
undergo instruction:- "How first both gods and earth were made,

And rivers, and boundless deep, and ocean's surge, And
glittering stars, and spacious heaven above; How they grasped the crown and
shared the glory, And how at first they held the many-veiled Olympus.

These (truths), ye Muses, tell me of, saith he, From first,
and next which of them first arose.

Chaos, no doubt, the very first, arose; but next
Widestretching Earth, ever the throne secure of all Immortals, who hold the
peaks of white Olympus; And breezy Tartarus in wide earth's recess; And Love,
who is most beauteous of the gods immortal, Chasing care away from all the gods
and men, Quells in breasts the mind and counsel sage.

But Erebus from Chaos and gloomy Night arose; And, in turn,
from Night both Air and Day were born; But primal Earth, equal to self in sooth
begot The stormy sky to veil it round on every side, Ever to be for happy gods
a throne secure. And forth she brought the towering hills, the pleasant haunts
Of nymphs who dwell throughout the woody heights.

And also barren Sea begat the surge-tossed Flood, apart
from luscious Love; but next Embracing Heaven, she Ocean bred with eddies deep,
And Caeus, and Crius, and Hyperian, and Iapetus, And Thia, and Rhea, and
Themis, and Mnemosyne, And gold-crowned Phoebe, and comely Tethys.

But after these was born last the wiley Cronus, Fiercest of
sons; but he abhorred his blooming sire, And in turn the Cyclops bred, who
owned a savage breast."

And all the rest of the giants from Cronus, Hesiod
enumerates, and somewhere afterward that Jupiter was born of Rhea. All these,
then, made the foregoing statements in their doctrine regarding both the nature
and generation of the universe. But all, sinking below what is divine, busied
themselves concerning the substance of existing things, being astonished at the
magnitude of creation, and supposing that it constituted the Deity, each
speculator selecting in preference a different portion of the world; failing,
however, to discern the God and maker of these.

The opinions, therefore, of those who have attempted
to frame systems of philosophy among the Greeks, I consider that we have
sufficiently explained; and from these the heretics, taking occasion, have
endeavored to establish the tenets that will be after a short time declared.